Anybody enjoying the heat???? Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! My thanks to Red Devil_232 and his beautiful tomato plants for hosting last week's gardening thread. Here in NELA, we welcomed the first day of summer with temps in 3 digits ... at one time yesterday afternoon, our digital weather station had the temperature outside at 102.4! The remote unit that is transmitting the temp is on the north end of the house, tucked up under the eve and out of the sun. Whew!Lots going on here. We've been enjoying sweet corn (var. Serendipity) all week, and the harvest...

The case for mandatory GMO labeling - even if you believe in limited government and the free market (NaturalNews) Now that the GMO labeling ballot measure has been officially accepted onto the California ballot, Monsanto is gearing up its propaganda campaign that aims to convince people you don't need to know what you're eating! Trust us, we're the food companies! We never lie, do we? For the record, I'm an opponent of most government mandates against individuals. When the government says you have to give your children vaccine shots, that's a violation of your liberty. When Mayor Bloomberg says you...

TULSA, Oklahoma - A Tulsa woman is suing the city's code enforcement officers after she said they cut down her garden with no cause. Denise Morrison said she has more than 100 plant varieties in her front and back yards and all of them are edible and have a purpose. She knows which ones will treat arthritis, which will make your food spicy, which ones keep mosquitoes away and treat bug bites, but she said none of that matter to city inspectors. Last August, Morrison's front and back yards were filled with flowers in bloom, lemon, stevia, garlic chives, grapes,...

Weekly Gardening Thread Good morning gardeners. JustaDumbBlonde has been very busy lately and asked me to post this weeks thread for her. She felt bad about not being able to respond to posts on last weeks thread. I hope all of your gardens are doing well. My little 6 x 6 raised bed tomato patch is coming along fine. It has benefited from a couple of good rain showers in the last couple of weeks. "> This picture was taken at about 3:30 pm yesterday. The shade starts moving on to the tomato patch at about 3 pm and...

Good morning! Hope that all of my FRiends and fellow gardeners have had a good and productive week.Began the Spring harvest in my apiary yesterday, which yielded 7 gallons of beautiful honey from 3 hives. Still have 3 hives from which to pull the honey boxes, and the remaining hives will not harvest until Fall because they are relatively new. Bit of trivia here ... a gallon of honey weighs 12 pounds.The wheat harvest is over and the farm is buzzing with tractors getting cotton and soybeans planted on the wheat ground. The field corn has tassled and pollinated,...

Good morning and happy June to my gardening FRiends and fellow gardeners!You may have noticed that I titled last week's thread "Keywords", and then totally forgot to write the first word about the topic. That illustrates perfectly how frazzled my mind is these days. As I was getting ready to hit the post button, I kept thinking there was something I was forgetting, but finally convinced myself that it probably wasn't *that* important, and I posted the thread. I apologize.There has been more than once that great information has been posted by one of our members, but I can't...

A plant part valued for its medicinal, culinary, or aromatic qualities, for centuries herbs have been used to make medicines, add flavor to foods, make teas, mask odors, and attract bees and other pollinators into the garden...

Huge thanks to Red Devil_232 for posting the thread last week!!! It is absolutely crazy around the farm, with everybody going in different directions at the same time and trying to stay coordinated with one another.The wheat harvest is well underway, and the yields have been above our wildest dreams. The field corn has tasseled and is pollinating nicely. Several hundred acres of cotton have been planted and it is now being fertilized, sprayed for weeds, sprayed for bugs, etc. Still have about 900 acres of cotton left to plant behind the wheat.My sweet corn patches are looking good,...

Good morning gardeners. JustaDumbBlonde asked me to post the thread this morning because she and her Husband are out in the fields harvesting their wheat. Looks like they will have good weather. I hope all of your gardens are doing well. My gardening efforts have been scaled back this year to a 6x6 raised bed planted with eight of my three favorite tomato varieties. I am also continuing to pursue my Homebrewing hobby and will be brewing up a Honey Bee Ale later this afternoon and also bottling a Cranberry Mead that I started last November with a cork popping...

Good morning FRiends and fellow gardeners!! Here's wishing all mothers and grandmothers a very joyous and beautiful Mother's Day. We rock! It has been a very busy couple of weeks in my yard. Lots of projects going on and I was able to finish a few of them in between serious dumpings of rain. My rain gauge has registered just over 4" since Monday. We have a 50% chance of more by the first part of next week. Need to be harvesting wheat, but can't really be upset with the rain after the drought we experienced last year.A look...

Good morning FRiends and fellow gardeners! I really enjoyed all of you that participated in last week's thread. I've been so busy that I didn't have time to respond to each and every comment, but I think about what y'all write and the photos that you post while I'm out working on my own projects. You truly inspire me!Looking forward to reading your updates this week. We welcomed 2 new members to the ping list last week, bringing us to 525 members. That is fantastic, and we are on track to add 100 members this year.In my own little...

Good morning everyone! I'm looking forward to hearing your gardening challenges and successes today. Please check in and let us know how it's going.This morning I've put together a little pictorial of how Mark and I cut a honey bee hive out of a wall or similar place. This is a medium-sized cutout that we did back in March. The hive was located in an old shed that the owner wanted to tear down, but they were trying to reclaim windows and the old boards and the bees weren't having any of that. So, the owner got her building...

Good morning to my FRiends, fellow gardeners, future gardeners, and lurkers! It is beautiful and sunny today here in NELA. We received 2-1/2 inches of rain earlier in the week and it is still very wet in the yard and garden. I've been keeping busy with my bee yard ... I got called about a swarm day-before-yesterday, about 25 miles south of my house. I still had all of my bee catching equipment in my truck from doing a hive cutout last weekend, so off I went. Below is a photo of the swarm when I got there, and...

Happy Friday the 13th, and good morning fellow gardeners and FRiends! I hope that you are enjoying weather as beautiful as what we are experiencing here in NE Louisiana. Nights and mornings are cool and breezy, and the days very warm.I've planted 1.6 acres of bi-color sweet corn. We checked the seed the next day and it had already sprouted, and was pegged the following day. Perfect conditions!Looking forward to hearing what's going on in your neck o' the woods. The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds....

Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! The weather has cooled-down a bit, the sun is shining and my grandgirls have been here all week. I am one happy blonde today.It rained again 2 and 3 days ago, so I haven't even disked up the garden spot yet, but that will get done Monday.All of the fruit trees and bushes that I've planted are doing very well and the regular rains have been perfect to keep them moist and off to a great start! Some of the raspberries that I planted were established plants, and some were bare-root canes. Many...

Good evening, FRiends and gardeners! I deeply apologize for the delay in posting this week's thread ... this is an extremely busy time here on our farm, and when you've got just a handful of folks farming 3,000 acres, there are times when it is all hands on deck all night long. The rain has been spaced exactly right to be wrong, and we were down to the wire getting our corn crop planted.With that out of the way, how in the world is everybody doing with their gardens and plans for gardens? We have so many members with...

Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! Hopefully everyone has received beneficial rain this past week. We've had an additional 2 inches, which was a blessing because just to the south and southwest of us as much as 10 inches fell. While the area needed the rain, it didn't need it all at one time.Looking forward to reading what you're doing with your gardens and plans this week. Photos will earn you bonus points! :^) It is too wet for me to do anything in the garden, but I do have lots of raspberry bushes to get planted. Then, the...

Good morning FRiends and gardeners! During the rain this past week, I've had a chance to do some reading and found some articles that may be of interest to you. So this week I am sharing links, and I hope you enjoy them and find some useful information. I also hope that you'll check in and let us know how your garden/garden planning is coming along.In Kitchen Garden Creation, you'll learn about growing culinary and visual delights in the same place.The following links are for those interested in improving the structure of their soil. If you have rocks or...

. Good afternoon gardeners! After a high of 81 degrees yesterday, we are at 50 degrees today after experiencing high winds and 3 inches of rain last night. Radar would indicate that there is more rain to come, as I see it in Texas right now. I hope that all of our Texas gardeners are catching up on much needed rain! PTL!We have so many new gardeners in our group, in addition to folks with the desire to begin gardening, that I thought a primer on transplanting might be useful. Please feel free to add to the discussion with...

. Good morning fellow gardeners! Here in NE Louisiana the weatherman claims we will reach 90 degrees today. He is really starting to get on my nerves ... doesn't he know that this is the first week of March, for pete's sake? He could shade the truth and tell us it's going to be 68, it's not like he's given bad information before, he does it at least 3 days a week. But, I digress.First off this week, I want to share a link that fanfan, one of our gardening FRiends in Canada, sent to me earlier in the...

. Greetings from hot and sticky NE Louisiana! We set a record high yesterday at 89 degrees. I miss the mountains of Montana already. It averaged around 15 degrees while we were there and I was walking around in shirt sleeves. Without the extreme dampness, the cold is really comfortable.I want to extend a big THANK YOU to Red Devil_232 and Ellendra for taking care of the thread in my absence. Y'all did wonderful work and I appreciate your efforts more than you will know. I had expected to be able to post the thread for the past 2...

Good afternoon gardeners. I have been debating all day if I should post this week’s thread. And can’t help myself at this point. I do not like stepping on JADB’s ownership of the thread and I hope y’all and she understands. As many of you know my wife and I are moving from Meridian, Ms to Marshall, Tx and I was not sure I would be able to keep on gardening at the house we are leasing. Peggy has received a written approval letter from the owner for us to put in a small garden. So I will be trying...

Good morning Gardeners!!!! I know I'm not part of your usual cast of gardening threadmasters, but it's afternoon here and the thread hasn't arrived yet! So I'm going to start one, and if it turns out later that I shouldn't have, then I'll appologize really nicely. *Ahem*: The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political,...

Good morning fellow gardening Freepers. I'm in need of a good affordable garden tiller and was wondering what you folks think. I used to simply rent one but that option is pretty much out now since nearly all the rental places quit carrying tillers. The one place left that does rent tillers is prohibitively expensive. So, I'm considering just buying a smaller one. The Mantis XP fits my budget and they make a convincing sales pitch (good warranty, free shipping, Honda Engine) but I don't have a clue if they're any good. I'm open to any and all suggestions. I'm...

Good morning gardeners! Red Devil here. JustaDumbBlonde and her husband are on their way up to Montana for a well deserved vacation. She should be able to post the thread from her remote Montana location next week. I am sure she will continue with her plans for a soil structure thread next week. Her Thread subjects are so informative and interesting. Although I have not been real active on the thread, I read each and every post. Y'all have been doing a great job!I should be able to get some sort of a garden going this year, at our...

I have a dear friend and neighbor who is elderly and not in the best of health. Day in and day out during gardening season she sits at her kitchen table and watches me work in my yard and garden, living vicariously through me. Once or twice a week I'll take her some vegetables and we discuss gardening, which was such an important part of her earlier years. You can see the love of gardening in her eyes every time we have a talk. I asked her one day to tell me the difference between dirt and soil. Soil,...

SUPPLEMENTAL VOL. 1 USDA Unveils New Plant Hardiness Zone Map The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today released the new version of its Plant Hardiness Zone Map, updating a useful tool for gardeners and researchers for the first time since 1990 with greater accuracy and detail. The new map — jointly developed by USDA's Agricultural Research Service and Oregon State University's PRISM Climate Group — is available online at http://www.planthardiness.ars.usda.gov . ARS is the chief intramural scientific research agency of USDA. For the first time, the new map offers a Geographic Information System based interactive format and is specifically...

On January 25, 2012, The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released the new version of its Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PHZM), the first major update since 1990. See the new map, detailed state specific PHZMs, as well as PHZMs for Australia, Canada, China, Europe, and Japan...

Devastating fungus has already stripped shrubbery in Europe and New Zealand. Shrubs may be trembling by doorsteps across North America as an aggressive fungus disease of boxwood invades the continent. Boxwood blight, caused by a Cylindrocladium fungus, was unknown to science before 2000 but has now spread through Europe and New Zealand. In October, U.S. authorities confirmed that the blight had jumped continents, with infections confirmed in North Carolina and Connecticut. By mid-January, with growers and pathologists on alert, the fungus had turned up in at least five more states — Virginia, Maryland, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Oregon — and...

It was just a couple of weeks ago that I was really glad that the last of my garden had frozen. Being blessed with a long growing season is not always what it's cracked-up to be. You understand ... gardening is hard work! When it lasts from March or April until December, it can get tedious.Then, yesterday, my first order of seeds that I don't need came in from John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds. Four beautiful little envelopes that sound like maracas; Baby Lincoln Leeks, Tres Fine Maraichere Endive, Beaumont Broccoli, and Large Fruited Mixture Ornamental Gourds.I am stoked.Yep,...

Good morning everybody! It is cold and clear here in NE Louisiana, zone 8a, we should reach 50° today under sunny skies. We've received several inches of rain in the past 3 weeks, so there will be no garden prep for a while yet, but the sunny sky has a way of getting me in the mood. In last week's thread we discussed our seed and supply catalogs. This week I intended to discuss saving seeds from our own harvests, and starting seeds indoors. In preparing, I actually found a couple of articles that are very informative and give good...

January is not the most hospitable month of the year to be sure. If you're like me those cold dreary days are best spent curled up in a chair (for the guys that don't *do* curl -- sit there very manly) with a cup of tea (insert the manly beverage of your choice) and a stack of garden catalogs that you need a front-end loader to move (got you with the front-end loader, didn't I?).I've got to hand it to the catalog people, the covers are exceptional this year and, by golly, with all of the $25 to $100 coupons...

Are you ready for the vegetable census? Yesterday I received the “2012 National Agricultural Classification Survey” from the US Dept. of Agriculture. It was accompanied by a cover letter stating (in large, bold font) that my response is required by law; and, if I do not reply, I “may be personally visited.” I am not and have never been a farmer or rancher. My land has never been farmed or ranched. I do, however, have a vegetable garden that I built in 2009. This garden is private and noncommercial. There is no illegal activity whatsoever on my property. The survey...

Good morning gardeners. I hope all of you are doing well and wish you a Merry Christmas. Today’s thread will be the last one I post as the host of the gardening thread. Thankfully the thread will continue to be posted by Freeper JustaDumbBlonde. Not only is she is a very experienced gardener, she and her husband run a large acreage family farm growing corn, cotton, wheat, soybeans and various other crops. Her large kitchen garden is so successful she has set up a roadside stand to sell her produce. I am confident the Gardening Thread will be in very...

Good morning gardeners. As many of you may know, my wife is a manager at a Wal-Mart Superstore. About a month or so ago she was approached, via email, by Wal-Mart, informing her that there was a position opening up in one of their stores in Shreveport, La. and they wanted to do a phone interview with her if she was interested. She agreed and did the interview. Well last week they called her back and told her the position was hers if she wanted it. We were given an hour to make the decision. Job wise this is a...

Good morning gardeners. I can’t believe it is already December, Brrrrrrrrr! It is 27 this morning in East Central Mississippi and is forecast to be in the mid 60s this afternoon. There are no plans to do any outside work for this gardener today. What needs to be done can wait until Saturday and Sunday when it is supposed to be in the high 60s and into the 70s. Just waiting for Spring now. If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in...

Good morning gardeners. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. My day was nice, quiet and lazy. Mrs. RD had to go to work at one pm and did not get off until two this morning, so we will be having our Thanksgiving feast this afternoon. We are having a roasted Turkey breast with the typical side dishes. We usually have a Ham but Mrs. RD wanted Turkey this year so Turkey it is. It is forecast to be in the low 70s today so I may get out and gather up some leaves for the compost and some...

Good morning gardeners. Thanksgiving is next week and I hope all Freepers enjoy a bountiful feast with family and friends. Don’t forget to give thanks, it can turn a meal into a feast. A reminder for those of you who have a frozen turkey, for every 4 pounds of turkey it will take a day to thaw in the refrigerator. A 20-pound turkey will take 5 days so you need to start defrosting it tomorrow. If your turkey will not fit into your fridge defrost it in an ice chest with ice. If the turkey is allowed to thaw at...

Good morning gardeners. Remembering Veterans Day. Here is a big Thank You to all who have served our Country. Just wondering how many of you gardeners are Veterans? It is a Chilly 29 F here in East Central Mississippi. I have been trying to keep up with the leaves falling off the trees and I am hating the pine needles more and more everyday. I don’t use them in my compost pile because they take to long to break down. I pile them by the roadside and the county comes by once a week and vacuums them up. I hope...

Good morning gardeners. I hope all of you are doing well this first week in November. Daylight Saving Time officially ends in the U.S. and Canada, at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 6th, when clocks are moved back one hour. We have had some nice weather with lows in the mid to high 30’s and up into the mid 60’s for highs the last couple of days. Forecasts are calling for lows in the 40’s with Highs in the low 70’s for the next week. I hope all your Fall gardens are prospering. If you are a gardener or you...

Good morning gardeners. We had our first frost last Friday but the weather has been beautiful ever since. I have been gathering leaves and other yard waste to add to my compost pile, which has grown nicely over the last few weeks and it is heating up and cooking nicely. I hope all your Fall gardens prosper. If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and...